Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnick Gillibrand (b. December 9, 1966, in Albany, NY) is a Democratic member of the United States Senate from New York. Gillibrand was first appointed to the Senate in 2009 and is currently serving her first full term, having won re-election on November 6, 2012.[1][2]

Gillibrand is set to run for re-election in New York in November 2018.

Gillibrand served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, she was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated through Hillary Clinton's appointment to Secretary of State. In 2010, she then won the required special election to the seat with 63 percent of the vote.[3]

Based on analysis of multiple outside rankings, Gillibrand is one of the most reliable Democratic votes, meaning she can be considered a safe vote for the Democratic Party in Congress.

Biography

Gillibrand grew up in Albany. She went on to Dartmouth College and then attended UCLA Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1991.[4]

In 1991, Gillibrand practiced law privately in Manhattan. In 1992 she took leave from private practice to serve as a law clerk to Judge Roger Miner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Albany. Gillibrand later served as Special Counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In 1999, Gillibrand began working on Hillary Clinton's 2000 US Senate campaign. In 2001, Gillibrand became a partner at the Manhattan office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner. She left Boies in 2005 to begin her 2006 campaign for congress.[5]

Career

Below is an abbreviated outline of Gillibrand's academic, professional and political career:[6]

Key votes

113th Congress

The second session of the 113th Congress enacted into law 114 out of the 3,036 introduced bills (3.8 percent). Comparatively, the 112th Congress had 4.2 percent of introduced bills enacted into law in the second session.[10] The Senate confirmed 13,949 out of 18,323 executive nominations received (76.1 percent). For more information pertaining to Gillibrand's voting record in the 113th Congress, please see the below sections.[11]

National security

John Brennan CIA nomination

Gillibrand voted for the confirmation of John Brennan as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 7, 2013, with a vote of 63 - 34. Most Democrats supported the nomination, while Republicans were somewhat divided with roughly one-third supporting the nomination.[12]

Rooney undersecretary of the Navy nomination

Gillibrand put a hold on Jo Ann Rooney's nomination on October 31, 2013. Gillibrand criticized Rooney's remarks in a confirmation hearing. Rooney said, "A judge advocate outside the chain of command will be looking at a case through a different lens than a military commander."

"I believe the impact would be decisions based on evidence, rather than the interest in preserving good order and discipline. I believe this will result in fewer prosecutions and therefore defeat the problem that I understand it seeks to address."

Gillibrand explained her concern over Rooney's remarks asking, "If you were a service member raped on duty, why would you have confidence to come forward and report after hearing that basing decisions to prosecute solely on evidence would be a bad outcome? Jo Ann Rooney’s testimony should send chills down the spine of any member of the armed services seeking justice."[13]

Economy

No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013

Gillibrand voted for H.R.325 -- No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013. The bill passed the Senate on January 31, 2013, with a vote of 64 - 34. The purpose of the bill was to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and withhold the pay of members of Congress until a budget could be passed. The vote largely followed party lines with Democrats overwhelmingly supporting it and many Republicans in opposition to the bill.[14]

Government shutdown

During the shutdown in October 2013, the Senate rejected, down party lines, every House-originated bill that stripped the budget of funding for the Affordable Care Act. A deal was reached late on October 16, 2013, just hours before the debt ceiling deadline. The bill to reopen the government, H.R. 2775, lifted the $16.7 trillion debt limit and funded the government through January 15, 2014. Federal employees also received retroactive pay for the shutdown period. The only concession made by Senate Democrats was to require income verification for Obamacare subsidies.[15] The final vote on H.R. 2775 was 81-18, with all 18 votes against the bill from Republican members. Gillibrand voted with the Democratic Party for the bill.[16]

Immigration

Mexico-U.S. border

Gillibrand voted against Senate Amendment 1197 -- Requires the Completion of the Fence Along the United States-Mexico Border. The amendment was rejected by the Senate on June 18, 2013, with a vote of 39 - 54. The purpose of the amendment was to require the completion of 350 miles of fence described in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 before registered provisional immigrant status may be granted. It would also require 700 miles of fence be completed before the status of registered provisional immigrants may be changed to permanent resident status. The vote followed party lines.[17]

Social issues

Violence Against Women (2013)

Gillibrand voted for S.47 -- Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. The bill was passed by the Senate on February 12, 2013, with a vote of 78 - 22. The purpose of the bill was to combat violence against women, from domestic violence to international trafficking in persons. All 22 dissenting votes were cast by Republicans.[18]

Previous congressional sessions

Fiscal Cliff

Gillibrand voted for the fiscal cliff compromise bill, which made permanent most of the Bush tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 while also raising tax rates on the highest income levels. The bill was passed in the Senate by an 89 - 8 vote on January 1, 2013.[19]

House of Representatives

As a Member of the House of Representatives, Gillibrand supported the auto bailout.[20] As of September 13, 2010, 56 percent of Americans disapproved of the auto bailout, while 43 percent supported it.[21]

Senate

As a Member of the Senate, Gillibrand voted for the stimulus bill.[22] Fifty-seven percent of U.S. voters believed that the stimulus had either hurt the economy (36 percent) or had no impact (21 percent). Thirty-eight percent believed the stimulus helped the economy.[23]

Gillibrand also voted in favor of the health care reform bill.[24] Fifty-seven percent of likely voters at least somewhat favored repeal of the health care reform bill, including 46 percent who strongly favored repeal. Thirty-five percent of likely voters opposed repeal. Fifty-one percent of likely voters believed the health care reform bill would be bad for the country, while 36 percent believed it would be beneficial.[25]

Finally, Gillibrand voted against an amendment that would have defunded the Obama Administration's lawsuit against Arizona over its new immigration law. As of July 8, 2010, 56 percent of U.S. voters were opposed to the Obama Administration's challenge to the Arizona immigration law.[26]

Issues

On The Issues Vote Match

On The Issues conducts a VoteMatch analysis of elected officials based on 20 issue areas. Rather than relying on incumbents to complete the quiz themselves, the VoteMatch analysis is conducted using voting records, statements to the media, debate transcripts or citations from books authored by or about the candidate. Based on the results of the quiz, Gillibrand is a Populist-Leaning Liberal. Gillibrand received a score of 64 percent on social issues and 17 percent on economic issues.[27]

On The Issues organization logo.

The table below contains the results of analysis compiled by staff at On The Issues.

Elections

2016

When asked on November 17, 2013, if she was considering a run for the presidency, Gillibrand stated, "I am on the bandwagon for Hillary Clinton in 2016."[29] There have been 16 Senators elected to the presidency, including Barack Obama.[30]

2012

Gillibrand won re-election in 2012. She ran unopposed in the June 26, 2012, Democratic primary. She defeated Chris Edes (L), Wendy Long (R), Colia Clark (G) and John Mangelli (CSP) in the general election on November 6, 2012.

Fundraising events

Comprehensive donor history

Comprehensive donor information for Gillibrand is available dating back to 2012. Based on available campaign finance records, Gillibrand raised a total of $36,437,810 during that time period. This information was last updated on March 23, 2013.[32]

2012

Gillibrand won election to the U.S. Senate in 2012. During that election cycle, Gillibrand's campaign committee raised a total of $15,735,457 and spent $14,257,872.[37] This is more than the average of $10.2 million spent by Senate winners in 2012.[38]

PGI: Change in net worth

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org, Gillibrand's net worth as of 2012 was estimated between $166,004 and $416,000. That averages to $291,002, which is lower than the average net worth of Democratic senators in 2012 of $13,566,333.90. Gillibrand ranked as the 90th most wealthy senator in 2012.[40] Between 2006 and 2012, Gillibrand's calculated net worth[41] decreased by an average of 9 percent per year. Between 2004 and 2012, the average annual percentage increase for a member of Congress was 15.4 percent.[42]

Comparatively, the American citizen experienced a median yearly decline in net worth of -0.94%.[44]

The data used to calculate changes in net worth may include changes resulting from assets gained through marriage, inheritance, changes in family estates and/or trusts, changes in family business ownership and many other variables unrelated to a member's behavior in Congress.

PGI: Donation Concentration Metric

Filings required by the Federal Election Commission report on the industries that give to each candidate. Using campaign filings and information calculated by OpenSecrets.org, Ballotpedia calculated the percentage of donations by industry received by each incumbent over the course of his or her career (or 1989 and later, if elected prior to 1988). Gillibrand received the most donations from individuals and PACs employed by the Lawyers/Law Firms industry.

From 2005-2014, 35.47 percent of Gillibrand's career contributions came from the top five industries as listed below.[45]

Lifetime voting record

According to the website GovTrack, Gillibrand missed 13 of 1,698 roll call votes from January 2009 to July 2014. This amounts to 0.8 percent, which is better than the median of 2.0 percent among current senators as of July 2014.[48]

Congressional staff salaries

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Gillibrand paid her congressional staff a total of $3,321,631 in 2011. She ranked fifth on the list of the highest paid Democratic senatorial staff salaries and ranked seventh overall of the highest paid senatorial staff salaries in 2011. Overall, New York ranked fourth in average salary for senatorial staff. The average U.S. Senate congressional staff was paid $2,529,141.70 in fiscal year 2011.[49]

National Journal vote ratings

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of Congress voted in the previous year. Click the link above for the full ratings of all members of Congress.

↑The questions in the quiz are broken down into two sections -- social and economic. In social questions, liberals and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while conservatives and populists agree in choosing the more-restrictive answers. For the economic questions, conservatives and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while liberals and populists agree in choosing the more-restrictive answers.

↑This figure represents the average annual percentage growth from either 2004 (if the member entered office in 2004 or earlier) or their first year in office (as noted in the chart below) to 2012, divided by the number of years calculated.

↑This number was found by dividing each member's total net worth growth percentage by the number of years included in the calculation.

↑This figure represents the total percentage growth divided by the number of years for which there are net worth figures for each member.